Letter: Lake Allegan requires serious intervention

Fishermen wait with bows and arrows to shoot carp in Lake Allegan in a file photo.MLive file photo

The following is a letter to the editor that was sent to the Kalamazoo Gazette.

T.J. SMITH/Otsego

Lake Allegan is one the most disgusting bodies of water we have in the area. The lake smells horrid, like a mixture of sulfur and rotting fish. The around the edge of the water is a very thick, brown sludge, and the middle of the lake looks almost like a watered-down milkshake. Drainage pipes are visible from the side, pumping water into the lake.

Then there are algae blooms, which come from too much phosphate. When algae blooms die, they take up all the dissolved oxygen. When all the oxygen is gone the fish start to die off. There is also the problem of manure. Farmers would put manure on their fields, and when it would rain and the manure would wash down hill and into the lake. This would cause more fertilization, and more algae blooms. Finally there are the carp which are bottom feeders, and when they feed they mix up all the chemicals on the bottom of the lake making the lake even worse.

The lake will never be the same, but it can get better if people act and stop the dumping. We also need try to stop the runoff and the companies along the river from dumping into the river, or find something different to try to stop the pollution entirely. All this needs to be stopped if we ever want Lake Allegan to get any better.